MIRAMSHAH, Sept 17: Sixteen militants and two soldiers were killed in a gun battle between security forces and militants in the Shawal area of North Waziristan Agency on Sunday night.

Sources told Dawn that 10 to 15 soldiers were missing. The bodies of the militants were brought by helicopters to Miramshah, headquarters of the troubled region, on Monday.

There are rumours that about 15 soldiers and paramilitary personnel, who have gone missing in the embattled zone, have been killed by the militants.

(According to AFP, up to 18 soldiers and 16 militants have been killed in the fighting.

Local administration officials in Miramshah told AFP that militants had killed 16 soldiers and were not handing over their bodies to the authorities. “We have sent a jirga in the area to recover the bodies of soldiers from the miscreants,” a local administration official said.)

Meanwhile, the director-general of ISPR, Major-Gen Arshad Waheed, told a private television channel that some soldiers had lost communication with their base camp and were

missing. The area, thickly covered with trees, lies on the border between North and South Waziristan regions.

The Sunday night attack took place in the Pesh Ziarat area of Shawal region near the Afghan border. The sources said that militants used rockets and heavy guns, killing two soldiers and wounding five others. Security forces retaliated and locals said that heavy clashes continued till Monday morning.

Security forces had fought pitched battles with militants in the same area on Wednesday. A number of militants and soldiers were killed and wounded.

Witnesses said that the bodies of 16 militants killed in the clashes on Monday were brought to Miramshah. Local cleric Maulvi Abdur Rehman made an appeal from a mosque in the town for donations and for arranging coffins for burying the bodies.